Catheters, generally, are hollow, flexible tubes for insertion into a body cavity, duct, or vessel to allow the passage of fluids or distend a passageway. Catheters are often used for temporary or long-term dialysis treatment. Dialysis treatment provides for blood to be withdrawn from the patient, purified, and then returned to the patient. Thus, in dialysis treatment, catheters are used to allow passage of a patient's blood into and out of the patient's body. For optimal performance during dialysis treatment, the catheter tips, both in-flow and outflow, should be placed in close proximity to the heart. Typically, medical personnel use either a double lumen catheter or two single lumen catheters. Both types, however, present certain deficiencies.
While double lumen catheters (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,561) allow for a single venous insertion of the catheter into the desired vein, double lumen catheters typically do not provide for accuracy of catheter tip placement. Due to differences among patients, optimal tip position varies from patient to patient. Non-optimal tip position may significantly lower flow values, resulting in less effective dialysis treatment. For current double lumen catheters, a physician must make an estimate regarding the appropriate catheter tube length prior to beginning the procedure of catheterization. Then, a subcutaneous tunnel is made from the preferred end position of the hub assembly, namely, away from the neck of the patient in order to allow for more convenient access to the dialysis treatment equipment. The double lumen catheter tube is then tunneled forwardly into the patient's vein. The initial estimate and subsequent forward tunneling may result in less than optimal tip placement.
With the use of two independent catheters (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,776,111 and 5,624,413) the problem of tip placement is addressed. The hub assembly of each catheter is removable from the tube and tip portion of the catheter, thereby allowing the catheter tip to be placed directly into the vein and advanced into the desired position. Then, the proximal end of the catheter can be reversed tunneled and trimmed to a desired length. Thereafter, the hub assembly is attached. Deficiencies, however, exist in this method of catheterization as well. One problem associated with this method is that this method requires two separate venous insertions, namely, two tunnels and two of each accessory instrument used for the procedure. Therefore, there is increased surgical time required to place two catheters, there are two wound entry sites which doubles the risk of post-surgical infection, and the two catheters together are significantly larger in diameter than one double lumen catheter.